


Collectibles: "Immortal Populations Across The Old World"

by trebleclefable



Series: As Above, So Below [2]
Category: Vampyr (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Historical Inaccuracy, Historical References, In-Universe Academia, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-18 21:33:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29615733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trebleclefable/pseuds/trebleclefable
Summary: Abstract: Of the endless questions that plague the esteemed and learned scholars of the Immortal species, one in particular seems to cause much grief throughout history, for it is as basic as it is complex: how many Immortals are there, and how do we count them?(Worldbuilding for the Vampyr-universe outside of Britain, written in the style of in-game collectibles. Most of these ideas are entirely my own invention and not canon. This universe is meant to accompany Means of Grace.)
Series: As Above, So Below [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1968925
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Collectibles: "Immortal Populations Across The Old World"

**Author's Note:**

> Note that there's a LOT of historical inaccuracy in this fic, and the citations are lazy as hell, too. I already got my history degree, thank you very much, and will NOT be doing Chicago-style citations for a fanfiction. Anyway, I figured I could be flexible with the history because, hey, this is a game that claims King Arthur was not only a real, historical person, but that he was also a vampire. So I can do what I want. Enjoy!

“Immortal Populations Across The Old World”

From _Corpus Gentium Immortalium,_ by Irena Vrubel, published 1920

Translated from Czech into English by T.C.

Of the endless questions that plague the esteemed and learned scholars of the Immortal species, one in particular seems to cause much grief throughout history, for it is as basic as it is complex: how many Immortals are there, and how do we count them?

As of 1910, my home city of Praha officially hosts a population of about 201,000 people. Of this number, as many as 2,180 are suspected or confirmed Ekons. Due to the city’s long tradition of Immortal scholarship, Praha is uniquely blessed to have semi-tangible numbers. Most other cities are not so fortunate. For example, it is estimated that Paris, that crown jewel of Western Europe, has a total population of 2,714,000 people in the city proper - how would one even go about beginning to guess how many of those people are actually Ekon? How many Skals, Vulps, and Vulkods live in the city’s legendary catacombs? How does Paris’s Immortal population compare to the rest of the world? How does it compare to France as a whole? How does one go about counting the members of a population that survive entirely on going unnoticed?

The subject is so intimidating that the lack of academia on it is hardly surprising. Nonetheless, I have endeavored to do my part to rectify the error, no matter how humble my contributions. With the assistance of the many Hermetic and Occult orders and societies of Praha, my Czech brothers and sisters of this great city, I have embarked upon this great journey to quantify the unquantifiable, and in true Bohemian tradition, to know the unknowable.

It is common knowledge - as much as knowledge of the supernatural can be common - that throughout most of history, the number of Immortals steadily increases as one moves eastward. Naturally, we will start at the westernmost point and gradually explore our way through Europe and northern Africa. 

Due to a combination of climate, religious, cultural, and historical factors, there is no stable Immortal population to speak of in Iberia or Morocco. For the most part, we have the Umayyad Caliphate to blame - or thank - for this. Of course, a library could be filled with books on these Umayyad vampire hunters of Al-Andalus and the Maghreb, but for now, this article handles Immortal populations in general, so let us be content to focus on that. Unfortunately, academia knows of no pre-Umayyad texts that we could use to estimate the Immortal population during Antiquity. We _do_ know that archaeology has provided us with no conventional vampire burials or pyres, such as those found in Lugnano, Italy. Similarly, Malta is confirmed to have no Immortals within its borders, and has had no more than a handful ever since the Knights Hospitaller made the island its home in the mid 16th century. 

According to sources acquired by our Order (see Benedikt Kříž, _A Complete Survey Of Bohemian Ekon_ , 1898 and Johana Maruska, _Ars Vertendi_ , 1872), Ekon society typically considers the city of Tunis to be the boundary between the uninhabitable west and the more tolerable east, at least as far as the African coast is concerned. Supposedly Tunis hosts a modest population of Ekon, most of whom are merely transient. This makes estimating their numbers extremely difficult. We do have some reports that Immortals have inhabited the area since the existence of ancient Carthage (Kříž, 342-350), and these sources are corroborated by the recent discovery of tophets - infant graveyards - made by our French colleagues. Because the archaeological evidence suggests a once-stable, modest Ekon population, and the many impressive myths and innovations of the ancient Carthaginians (see Adrien Travert’s _Ancient Immortals_ , 1919), I propose that ancient Tunisia was an ancient center of Immortal settlement, and that these Immortals were wiped out by the Umayyad vampire-hunters. Regardless of what exactly happened to them, we can confirm that in Antiquity, many Immortals lived along the southern Mediterranean’s coastline, but were likely driven or killed off by (presumably, Umayyad, but perhaps Abbasid or even late Roman) mortal hunters.

With much of Africa handled (save Egypt, where we will visit later), let us go north to the British Isles. Among occult academia, the British Isles are renowned for the unique dynamic of Immortals - both the dynamic between Immortals and mortals, and the dynamic between the Immortals themselves. The most prominent (and only) occult order of the Isles is the Brotherhood of St. Paul’s Stole, named after St. Paul Aurelian and established in the 6th century AD, and they will be our main source of information. 

Now, the British Isles have always, since the time of the Iron Age, had a unique problem with Immortals. Namely, due to the constantly overcast weather, Britain’s history of constant epidemics and violence that give all species of Immortals some degree of camouflage, and the Celtic worship of key Immortal individuals - due to all these factors, Immortals flock to the British Isles and have always done so. Now, here is the problem: Britain has seen the establishment of several of what are possibly the best, most successful vampire-hunting companies in history. The most recent of these groups is the Guard of Priwen, established in 1800 after a schism in the Brotherhood of St. Paul’s Stole; these hunters have been _especially_ efficient in thinning Immortal numbers, and with impressively few casualties (Usher Talltree, _Drinking at the Fountain of Knowledge_ ). The point being, the British are so well-known for vampire-hunting that it is common practice for hunters from the continent to travel to England and complete an ‘apprenticeship’ there. As a result, the British Immortal population is volatile and erratic at best - every wave of Immortal growth is quickly accompanied by a wave of hunters who inevitably drive the numbers down, and on and on it goes. 

Such is the case in recent years. The one-two punch of the Spanish Influenza and the Great War all but threw the Isles into chaos, with Brotherhood legates reporting consistent _open_ conflict between Immortals and hunters with little regard to discretion (it should be noted that I do not blame Priwen for this breach of the ‘masquerade,’ as their task of keeping innocent mortals safe was an unenviable, impossible one). Usher Talltree, Primate of the Brotherhood, estimated that from 1914 to 1919, as many as _400,000_ Immortals set foot on London’s streets at some point - nearly the same number of British soldiers in reserve in 1914! 

Thank Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, the Guard of Priwen, under the leadership of Irishman Geoffrey McCullum, rose admirably to face what should have been a complete catastrophe. I should mention, I am and always have been fiercely against _indiscriminate_ slaughter of Immortals. That being said, I believe it is entirely thanks to the efforts of Priwen that millions more mortal lives were not lost. Usher Talltree claims that violence between the London’s Immortal factions also contributed to the aversion of disaster, and that several individual Ekons went out of their way to assist mortals during this difficult time. In the future, I plan on conducting interviews with these particular Ekons, assuming I can find and convince them. 

As of 1920, there are relatively few Immortals still in London or even Britain as a whole; the Guard of Priwen and the heroic Ekons contributed to much of this, as well as Britain’s gradual recovery and increasing stability. Talltree claims that by the end of the influenza and the Great War, London’s Ekon population is no more than 300 at most. Accordingly, the Guard of Priwen has scaled down its membership as well. Hopefully the mortals of Britain will be able to enjoy another century of calm before the next cycle begins.

That will suffice for Britain for now. Let us move on to France, another country that varies quite wildly in terms of number of vampires. Like Tunisia and Morocco, southern France is quite hostile to Immortals in both history and climate; like Britain, Occitania in particular has an impressive tradition of vampire-hunting, and has even produced a centuries-old interconnected network of hunting bands. Unsurprisingly, the Immortals that manage to survive here are considered to be of legendary toughness and perseverance. Occitania, however, does seem to have a stable Ekon population, unlike Tunisia. A meager population of about 480, of course, but a stable population nonetheless. 

The further north you go in France, the more habitable the environment becomes for Immortals. Truth be told, there is little point spending time on Paris’s Immortal population; the catacombs, the population density and urban sprawl, the city’s propensity to attract people from all over the world, its amount of travelers and transient visitors - all make such a proposition impossible. Let it suffice to say that Paris is an easy hunting ground for Immortals, and historically, the halls of Parisian aristocracy are no strangers to Ekon guests. Paris’s reputation as favorable to vampires is so well known, in fact, that supposedly it is commonly the first destination of many newly reborn Immortals. 

So much for the city of lights. Not too far east, the Alsace-Lorraine and greater German Rhineland region is particularly storied, and supports at least two all-Ekon villages, and possibly an all-Skal settlement as well. It is estimated that this region has, in total, 10,000 Immortals. Unfortunately, this region is so storied exactly because the Immortals here are quite brutal and aggressive - while they do actively cull their own numbers to keep from drawing attention, they’ve also indulged in culling mortals as well. Indeed, it is thought that the Ekons here are responsible for numerous bizarre historical events, such as the Dancing Plague of 1518, the Pied Piper of Hamelin incident in 1284 (see Count Froben Christoph von Zimmern, _Zimmerische Chronik_ ), and the Witch Trials of Trier from 1581 to 1593. Additionally, these Ekon are unfortunately quite organized, and do not take kindly to outsiders; they have been known to mobilize at the smallest mention of a hunting band, and have been responsible for the deaths of many brave occultists as well. It is that very organization that makes it possible to estimate their numbers, of course, but keep in mind that this is all very tentative and subject to debate.

Next, we will skip much of Germany and fly straight to my own lovely Bohemia and the rest of central Europe, the historical haven of occultists and vampires alike...


End file.
